Ok,so I am a probationary 1st degree black belt and that means that it is possible for me to lose it,but Saturday I am testing for decided 1st degree which means no matter what I'll always be a black belt.But here's where I need yall's help.They're gonna ask me why I want to be a black belt and I would say self defence but they said I cant say that,and I really dont know what else to say.So I need help on what I should say when they ask me "Why I want to be a black belt?" :ph43r:

Well what would be different for you if you were a black belt?

One of the great things about being a blackbelt is that you will now be able to help lower belts attain the skills you have gained. 1st Dan is to me the beginning of a wonderful journey of learning and helping others.

Obtaining a blackbelt is also a compliment to your teacher (sa bum nim)? Who has put in a great deal of time and effort to help you attain this goal.

If you need me too keep on ranting, just let me know.

I'm no Martial Arts expert (my son is yellow belt in tae kwon doe), but my understanding is that it takes much discipline and concentration to be a black belt, and those skills are transferable to other aspects of your life. As such, you could pay hommage to those skills by stating that you are working to the black belt level to gain greater discipline, increased concentration skills, etc, that you could also use in all aspects of your life.

These are all good reasons, but at the end of the day it does come down to you. Why are you doing it? How would you feel if you didn't get it? Why does it matter to you?

Al's right -- did you do it to learn concentration, to learn discipline, to help out? There's any number of things you could say with that! This coming from someone who knows absolutely nothing about the martial arts -- the closest I ever got was having a crush on a guy who taught them! :P

Follow your heart, my dear ;) It may be a cliche, but cliches do have a grain of truth! :D

Lelana

I agree. I've spend most of my life following cliches. Except I haven't gotten very far because today was the first day of the rest of my life.

Actually I started because I couldnt take ballet because of the schedule.And my brother was in it.At first I didnt like it to much and now I love it!

I sense a Deep Thought coming on...

"To me, boxing is like ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other." -- Jack Handy

Deep Thought is bolded to emphasize the fact that they don't come along too often. :P

Maybe they're bolded to warn... some people to begin reading veeeery slowly.

Heh heh heh :clap:

Black belt is just a designation of experiance and to some extent skill. It really has no effect on your ability to defend yourself.

Or to take the traditional approach that you would like to pass on your knowledge of style and technique etc., to a new generation of learners to further the continuation of the art.

I never got as far as yorself, so you have my respect. As Al has rightly said, speak from within and as long as you remain true to yourself, nothing else should matter.

The black belt is the first level of "master" of an art. This implies a mastery of not just technique but the spirit of your discipline. The question is there to encourage you to think about this. If you say that you found the question hard and had to work on it, I'm sure this will be taken positively.

Just tell them the truth, that you want your black belt to score hotties. Because I have no real relevent knowledge of the martial arts, I'll just leave it with my smart assed comment.

So does this make it the 3rd day of the rest of your life, Daemon?

Strangely, it's still the first? It's like frickin' groundhog day around here.